Apple announced that ResearchKit is enabling new research studies on autism, epilepsy and melanoma. ResearchKit turns iPhone into a powerful tool for medical research by helping doctors, scientists and other researchers gather data more frequently and more accurately from participants using iPhone apps. With ResearchKit, study participants can review an interactive informed consent process, easily complete active tasks or submit survey responses, and choose how their health data is shared with researchers, making contributions to medical research easier than ever. Researchers and developers have already contributed to ResearchKit, with more than 50 researchers adding to the open source framework.

With user permission, researchers designing studies using ResearchKit can also access data from the Health app such as weight, blood pressure, glucose levels, and other data measured by third-party devices and apps, to capture real-time data right from the iPhone. Access to the accelerometer, microphone, gyroscope and GPS sensors in iPhone deliver additional insight into a participant’s gait, motor impairment, fitness, speech and memory, delivering more objective data to medical researchers.

For more information on ResearchKit and existing studies, visit www.apple.com/uk/researchkit and for details on how to access the open source framework, visit www.researchkit.org. ResearchKit studies are available in Austria, China, Germany, Hong Kong, Switzerland, the UK and the US.